please help! hen or rooster?

[emipou]

Hi everyone. I really hope you can help. Someone abandoned their two chickens at our barn a couple months back. One if them was eaten by coyote right away. The other survived and we named it Ralph Macchio. We thought at first it was a boy. It was hard to tell because it came to us practically bald. The little red doodles on its head are big but also flop over. In trying to research floppy doodles, I’m reading that it tends to happen with older hens.

I need to find out its sex right away because it was almost eaten the other night. It only has two tail feathers left. People are interested but only if it’s a hen.

I made a Facebook page for it. Please look at the photos and help me identify Ralph Maachio’s sex!
https://m.facebook.com/ralphmacchiorooster

Thanks!

[mzm_farm]

Roosters crow. They crow in the morning, afternoon, evening, middle of the night, when you talk, when you are trying to listen, when the radio talks. They crow when they are bald and molting and ugly looking, they crow when in full feather. Fat or thin they crow. That is just what they do.

Does your mystery bird crow?

How about laying eggs? That would be an obvious give away
Note, most hens, young or old, do not lay eggs while molting.

Good luck with your bird!

[sk_pacer]

Hens can crow, generally older hens and they can do a good job of it. Usual circumstance is an all hen flock or a hormonal imbalance. Your chicken looks like a hen, not a rooster

[S1969]

LOL I don’t know but your Facebook page is hilarious!!

I hope someone takes him/her! Good luck!

[emipou]

No crowing. Some clucking. One day I found what looked like a nest formation in the dirt. No eggs. I think Ralph is a SHE.

I had a lot of fun with that page and will be so sad to see Ralph go! It would run after me to the tack sheds when I come to the barn. But I would hate to see it eaten.

[Luseride]

My MIL used to say “No good comes from a whistling woman or a crowing hen.”

Of course she would say that when I would come in the house whistling. LOL

[emipou]

I posted a more recent photo just now of Ralph before the coyote ate the tail…

[Cherry]

Are.you sure the people taking him/her aren’t going to eat him/her?

I tried to rehome a domestic rabbit that I found alongside the road but the few people who called me weren’t too shy to tell me they wanted to eat him! :eek: I kept him until the day he died…

[Megaladon]

Looks like a hen. She’s cute! Have the temps been getting cold at your location? She may be in molt, hence the feather loss.

[Riverotter]

That is a Brown Leghorn hen.
Roosters don’t come in that color pattern, certain patterns are sex-linked in chickens.
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGK/Leghorns/BRKLeghorns.html

Leghorns are wonderful birds, my favorite breed. If you were nearby, Ralph could come here.

[LLee]

That red doodle is called a comb, which unfortunately your bird is not using as her coiffure is in atrocious condition. That she would blame it on a coyote only serves to spotlight her shoddy attempt to divert responsibility to some other hapless animal. For shame. :no:

Obviously she has attempted to end it all buy digging her own grave but failed to persevere and only managed to excavate a shallow dirt bath in a futile attempt to hide her motley appearance. Really, shedding seldom looks this bad unless it’s a rank amateur. :disgust:

Obviously this hussy is a Roadie (Rhode Island Reds are notorious gossip fodder around barn waterers ) and will lay white eggs every chance she gets, as evidenced by her white ear discs. Really, do you want this pathetic example of everything wrong with chickendum to wander freely about your barn, pooping from the rafters on everyone and everything? Nay, I say give her to the peasants next door and wash your hands of this whole shoddy affair. :yes:

LLee-----------------needs to accept that grey does not change one’s IQ from “blonde” to something higher…

[Hulk]

You got another vote for a brown leghorn here.(Riverotter) I also worry that if some one wants her it may be for eating purposes.(Cherry) I find pet chickens around the barn something I don’t want to be with out. If your not finding eggs being in molt would explain that as well as missing feathers. (Megaladon)

[emipou]

Thanks everyone! Very helpful info! Tomorrow I shall attempt to catch Ralph Macchio the HEN so SHE can go live at her new home - a friend of a friend who owns a bunch of different chickens will be taking her.
I will attempt to keep the Ralph Macchio FB page alive in her honor. She’s been through a lot. I still haven’t publicly posted what she looks like now- with her two pathetic tail feathers.

[HungarianHippo]

Cherry, If it is unacceptable for someone to humanely process a chicken for meat, then by all means keep it as a pet. But if that’s the case, tell us what is your plan for euthanasia when that chicken’s time is up? Would you drive it to the vet for chemical euth? Pay for a farm call? All well and good, but I’d be interested to know how either of those is materially better from the chicken’s perspective than the nearly instant hatchet method. Because I’ve processed our meat birds, and know first hand that the entire process goes like this: pick up bird from their cozy coop, where they’re hangin’ with the other birds. Walk about 15 steps, turn her upside down and put in the cone, and then xxxxx. Done.
Absolutely no more stress than if you picked her up and held for the vet to inject. And WAY less stress than putting in a cage to take to vets office.

[Riverotter]

Someone would have to be pretty hungry to eat a brown leghorn hen. There’s nothing to them. And when she starts laying again (or when you find the nest, Leghorns are notorious egg hiders) you will be surprised at what a big white egg she lays, and she’ll lay one every day.

I keep a bunch of chickens around, mostly leghorns and crosses. Besides the eggs, they are also great at breaking up manure and cleaning up spilled grain, which really helps with pest control.
And they help with de-spooking. If any are being a pain and won’t move away from where I’m working a horse, I’ll pick them up and toss them at the horse.
Some chickens can’t fly, but toss a leghorn in the air and they’ll gently flutter to the ground about 15 feet away.
I miss YoYo Chicken, who’d come running back to play the game again and again. Sadly their natural lifespan is 2 to 3 years. Other breeds live longer.

[tinah]

Wait until dark. Pick up chicken. Put chicken in box.

[emipou]

Hey everyone! Wanted to send out a quick update that Ralph has been successfully rehomed! She is now living with a small flock of hens and I hear she has become the alpha hen. I posted photos to her facebook page if you want to see Thanks again for all your help!